Restraining Government in America and Around the World

Obama’s Hypocritical Class Warfare

The President had another “spread the wealth” slip of the tongue the other day, this time remarking that “at some point you have made enough money.” Some have commented that this exposes Obama’s anti-capitalist ideology, and others have correctly noted that the government should have no role in determining the “right” level of income. But I think Michelle Malkin hit the nail on the head by exposing the absurd levels of hypocrisy when Obama (who is in the top 1 percent) and his cabinet (filled with other people who are very wealthy) push policies designed to make it more difficult for other people to get rich. And as Michelle notes, Obama and his cronies largely got rich because of favoritism rather than producing anything of real value:

President Obama spoke the most revealing and clarifying ten words of his control-freak administration this week: “I think at some point you have made enough money.” …Obama then ad-libbed peculiar definitions of what he called the “American way” and the profit motive: “You can just keep on making it if you’re providing a good product or providing good service. We don’t want people to stop, ah, fulfilling the core responsibilities of the financial system to help grow our economy.” Fundamental lesson of Capitalism 101: Governments and bureaucrats don’t make what people want and need. They only get in the way. It is individuals, cooperating peacefully and voluntarily, working together without mandate or central design, who produce the world’s goods and services. They make what people desire and demand for themselves, not what Obama and his imperial overlords ordain that the masses should have. As usual, Obama’s populist demagoguery is telling in its omissions and selectivity. While he lectures on the morality of salary caps for everyone else, his own cabinet is filled with fabulously wealthy CEOs and statist creatures who have parlayed government employment (a “good” service) into private gain as lobbyists, consultants, and advisers (“core responsibilities of the financial system”), and then back again to public stints. Revolving doors have always grown the Beltway economy. …That famous mock-up poster of Obama as the creepy socialist Joker has never seemed more apt.

The only thing I would have added is that Obama and friends represent the interests of government, and people in government receive twice as much compensation, on average, as the taxpayers (i.e., serfs) who pay their lavish salaries and benefits. This is utterly disgusting.